Shattering Inhibitions
by SiliconOverlord27
Summary: AU, Post-S1; If you asked her after the Undertaking, Felicity Smoak would definitely tell you that she was of the opinion that Starling City needed the Vigilante. She was also of the opinion that Oliver Queen needed someone he could trust. What happens when those two goals combine together to define the rise of one woman? And what challenges will come to pass in the process?
1. Chapter 1: The Vow

So, hello there. I wrote this story out of boredom during class. My class for this term is Monday thru Friday, 730am-230pm, and I only need about an hour to actually do my homework in the class. There's like no point to the class beyond that...so I spend the rest of my time writing! This fic only has minor editing done to it by yours truly, but we'll see how bad it really is.

Disclaimer: Yeah, don't own Arrow. If I did, this probably would have happened.

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"There's a part about being 'The Hood' that neither of you are considering!" One Oliver Queen shot off, taking a glance between his two associates; his bodyguard, John Diggle. And his former IT expert and now personal assistant, the beautiful Felicity Smoak. Not that he would ever tell her that. His voice hung in the air because of his pause, the two people accompanying him into that glass office looking at him curiously, wondering where he was going with this. "-The Body Count." He finished finally, flashes behind his eye lids of his best friend calling him a murderer. A killer. Of his best friend dying in his arms, asking him an honest question and being forced to lie to him.

On her own end, Felicity couldn't help but sympathize with her billionaire boss upon his utterance of these very words. Many times over the last year, she had made his life difficult over this very subject. She'd locked the door shut on him when he'd gone out to scare someone on the list. She was a young computer geek. She wanted no part in orphaning little kids. And now, here she was; trying to convince him to pick up the bow and go back to work. Go back to work killing criminals.

This realization didn't stop her from trying to inspire him into action, of course. The work he had done in that green outfit had done some incredible good to this city. "And forgive me for saying this, but so what? Since when have you cared?" She asked as she stepped forward, placing both hands on his desk and leaning towards the tortured billionaire, finding herself looking into his eyes. Just one step away from losing herself in them.

She almost didn't notice the awkward silence her question had invoked, lost in his eyes as she was. Until he broke the contact to look down at his desk, she had slowly seen the emotions play across his face; the hurt, the pain, and it took her a moment to connect the dots. Nearly the same amount of time it took Dig. "Since Tommy." The 'bodyguard' realized in that beat of silence. There was a single, short nod from their arrow launching friend.

"My best friend died thinking I was a murderer. A killer. And every single person that I kill, dishonors his memory." Felicity felt a pang, her mental soft spot for that tortured soul hiding under a multitude of masks further softening in response to this statement.

She suddenly wanted nothing more than to offer him an ear to vent to, a shoulder to cry on, and a conscience to keep that bad habit. That kill or be killed mentality he'd developed in order to survive for five years in a hell she could scarcely pretend to comprehend, in check.

And it was in that moment that she decided, she would. She owed him too much not to.


	2. Chapter 2: Babbling

Hello again! Chapter 2, this and the next Chapter were both written in the same class, and I had no internet access while I was writing it, so if there are any continuity errors, or out-of-character actions, please, let me know with a review.

Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow.

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"Hi." Felicity greeted nervously as she knocked on the open door-frame to the room made of glass that Oliver Queen's office occupied. Even as she stepped through the threshold, she could already feel her mouth taking off on an uncontrolled, ballistic missile test to Siberia, faster than even her brain could ever hope to follow. "Can I talk to you? I mean, you said if I ever needed to talk to someone about my day, I could talk to you. But this isn't really about my day, and that was before Tommy died and his dad blew up half the city and...oh God I just mentioned Tommy and I know that's a...shutting up." Rambling. So much rambling.

Oliver, to his credit, maintained a small smile and merely a pair of raised eyebrows while listening to her. Somehow she could make him smile even when she brought up those sore spots in his chaotic life that would cause any normal creature to flinch away from and launch into defensive mode. "Felicity." He greeted, only a slight hint of awkwardness to his response. Mostly from the surprise of her just having launched into his office and immediately beginning to ramble. It took a moment for his brain to fully process the words she had said, for that matter. "I did say that, didn't I?" he questioned, motioning her to a chair on the other side of his desk.

The Blonde IT expert gave him a grateful smile, accepting his offer to rest her feet, of course; dropping into the chair did nothing to curb her mouth from going full into full machine gun mode. "Great! Because I really wanted to talk to you. Considering what's on my mind is about you...Not that I think about you all the time. Although I do. It's just..." Shit. Shit. Shit. Rambling. Rambling. She forced herself to stop talking for a brief moment, for the purpose of taking a breath and getting her words back on track. And to force down the blush now certainly covering her cheeks. Maybe things would be better if she pretended she never said that?

"I'm curious about you. And I know I shouldn't be. I mean, I'm probably the only woman other than your psycho ex who knows who you really are. And yet I know so little about you. I can barely imagine what it must have been like to lose your best friend with him thinking you're a monster, but I can imagine it's not a fun thing to deal with. What, with everything that happened to you on that island and suddenly everything that kept you alive for five years has people judging you..."

"Felicity." Came the gentle interruption from Oliver. Somehow it looked like he was managing to keep up with her rambling. Or maybe he wasn't even bothering to try and he was just allowing her to talk. He didn't look clueless though. Kind of? Okay. Deep breath Felicity...

"What I'm trying to say." She spluttered to get the words out, struggling to get her thoughts back on one straight track, reminding herself that not everyone could focus on multiple things at once, like she could. "Is that it works both ways. If you ever feel like _you _need to talk about _your _day, I'm here. I don't know everything's that happened to you, and I don't need to. Not that I wouldn't listen if you told me, because I would. But I know who you are. Who you really are, and I wouldn't change that one bit. But I know being alone sucks and I just wanted you to know that, as long as I'm here – and I'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon – you're not alone."

Some varied levels of surprise and shock moved across Oliver's face as her eyes shot from his eyes, to his desk, out the window, to his suit, back to his eyes..."Felicity...I say again. You're remarkable." The billionaire whispered after a moment, shaking his head with a smile on his face. She had no reason to care about him, yet she did. Felicity could feel her face burning at the reference to the compliment he'd given her so long ago, before she knew his secret.

"Thank you for remarking on it. Again...I think." She found herself smiling back at him, her eyes still roaming over him. She couldn't help it. Even in a serious moment like this, she couldn't help but admire him. What straight woman couldn't? Especially when he was smiling at you...

Oliver then threw his head back with a laugh at the 'I think'. It was a beautiful sound, really. One she hadn't really ever heard from him. A chuckle here, and a chuckle there, sure. But he hadn't ever really seemed to just...laugh. Probably a lasting scar from his life on the island. "Thank you." he said after his straight face returned, although he was still smiling. "Maybe I do need to talk to someone...How about tonight? Dinner?"

Wait, what?

Felicity blinked to make sure she wasn't imagining things. And then blinked again. And then pinched herself. She hadn't expected him to be so open to talking. To her. And she knew this wasn't some kind of cover for a hooded operation...she was still trying to convince him to put the damn thing back on! "Really? I mean...you don't have to..."

"Felicity." Oliver interrupted her with her name yet again. God, why did it sound so good whenever he said it? "I really don't want to be on an island anymore. And you're right. You're the only person who knows my secret. You're the only one I trust. So yes. Really, tonight. Italian okay?"

"It's a date." Felicity responded perkily, with a smile. And then realized what she said, feeling her face immediately get hot. "Except, not a date. I mean..."

"It's a date." Oliver confirmed, a smile on his face; stuck there because of her rambling. Though he interrupted her to save her from feeling like she would be completely embarrassed. "Pick you up at 7?"

"Uh...Sure. Sounds good?"

"I'll see you tonight then." Oliver smiled at her, and then looked back down to his desk. To the stack of paperwork he had to do in an attempt to save this failing company.

It took a minute and thirty-five seconds after she had left the room before Felicity Smoak realized that she had just agreed to a date with Oliver Queen.


	3. Chapter 3: The Date

Chapter 3; chugging away, eh? Once again. Any continuity errors, or heck, anything you want to see. Let me know with a review, and I'll see what I can do.

Disclaimer: Me no own Arrow.

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In retrospect, it was probably surprising that Felicity didn't have that much trouble deciding what to wear that night. For her date. With Oliver Queen. Of course, maybe it wasn't surprising at all. She knew him well, he knew her well. They'd seen each other on both their best and their worst days. There was no-one to impress, and considering the topic at hand, comfort was the most important factor in the atmosphere tonight; not looking nice. And that rule followed for both of them.

And thus, Felicity found herself in the same dress she'd worn into the casino that day, sitting across from Oliver with a fancy tablecloth and a glorious bottle of red wine between them. Already, deep in her mind, she was planning things. She knew sooner or later, he'd berate himself for letting her in. For 'putting her in danger', and that he would try to push her away, for her supposed safety. And she had already decided that she wasn't, under any circumstances, going to let that happen. She was living a dangerous life as it was. Even if she never got involved with Oliver Queen again, and the Hood never re-appeared; many people knew that she had helped the hood, not to mention the fact that she had hacked federal computer systems and the like...And whether or not Oliver was present in her life anymore, she would be in danger.

So what was the harm in being close to him? She sipped at her glass of wine as she listened to boss of both of her jobs, even if she was on indefinite vacation from one of them, at least at the moment, talked about things that were intensely personal to him. About the shipwreck, about surviving those first days with Yao Fei. About Fyres. Meeting Slade and Shado...it was a brief and quick explanation. About as simple and short of a story as anyone could possibly imagine considering all the events that had occurred. But that was fine; he was talking about it. And that was the part that was important about all of this in the end.

She nodded along to the story, paying explicit attention to every detail that he shared with her. Asking minor questions here and there for clarification, but certainly not interrogating him on any particular matter. And most importantly to Oliver; her expression remained neutral throughout his entire story. She didn't pity him, she didn't praise him for learning to kill. He didn't need her pity, he certainly didn't want it, serving by his actions towards everyone over the last year or so. What he did need, was her support. And support is what she offered. Support and acceptance.

"I feel like I'm talking way too much." Oliver chuckled, taking a sip of his own wine across from the table after finishing the main course of their meal. Causing one blonde IT expert to crack a smile.

"Oh, please. Go on. For once I'm not doing all the talking. And I like having your voice in my ear." It was a dirty little smirk she wore. And whatever drove her to reference the mission in which she'd worn this dress last was beyond her. But she considered it entirely worth it when Oliver threw his head back and burst out in a short laugh. The second laugh she'd ever heard from him. And it was a beautiful sound. She loved it. Chuckles? All the time. Smiles? Plenty enough to make a girl melt. But laughs? Not so common. And she would do her best to change that.

"That was one of your more amusing slip ups. Even if I didn't laugh at the time." He admitted, shaking his head at the memory. He had been far too concerned with her safety at the time to have done anything but worry. And so he hadn't laughed, at the time. He had barely even recognized that she'd said it, while he had been mentally calculating the numerous ways he could get into the casino if he were to hear anything go wrong...

"I'm glad you didn't. I was embarrassed enough as it was." Felicity giggled. And then took a second to ponder if she'd maybe had a little too much wine already, before she shrugged it off and took another sip. "To be honest, my least favorite part about that, was knowing you were probably going to kill to come save me. That was my least favorite part about anything related to the Hood...I didn't sign up to be an accomplice in killing people, or orphaning kids...or anything like that. But somewhere between me signing on, and when you finally found Walter, I began to realize exactly how much good you were doing in this city. And that there's plenty of people you stopped without killing. I think, deep down, the Hood is just as much a part of you now as Oliver Queen is. But neither of _them_ are really _you_. I think you're somewhere in the middle. You're someone else now, and that doesn't mean you have to be a killer. But if it's kill or be killed...I don't think anyone would blame you for making the choice to survive. And I know I'm rambling and getting off track. But you're not a playboy anymore, and you're not just the hood. You're Oliver, and I want you to know that I know that. And you don't have to pretend to be anything around me."

Just as she had for his long and complicated story about his first year on the island, Oliver listened intently to her rambling speech. And at the end, he wasn't exactly sure how to respond to her. It took him a moment to realize that she wasn't trying to convince him to pick the hood back up. Not right now, anyway. He could tell from her body language and her tone of voice that she was just being as honest with him as he'd been with her a moment before. Trusting him with _her_ opinion. And in her own little way, telling him that she didn't think he'd done anything wrong. That honesty, that trust; meant everything.

What she was doing, was telling him that he could be himself around her. And if being himself _did _mean being the hood, then she would be right by his side, even if she didn't like the killing. Because she believed it was all for the greater good. But his mistakes and his failures still haunted him. "I failed, Felicity. This city depended on me, and I couldn't help it. I couldn't stop the undertaking."

There was a short, sarcastic laugh with no humor behind it from Felicity's side of the table, and that threw him off. "Oliver, no one could have stopped it. Even if you'd somehow guessed there was a second device, how would you have known where it was? We barely found the first one. Not to mention that we didn't have anyone to disarm both devices. There was nothing you could have done." And there wasn't. As far as one Felicity Smoak was concerned, the blame for the fall of the Glades lay squarely on Malcolm Merlyn's shoulders, and The Hood was the only reason that thousands of people in the city had survived that misguided act of revenge from the Dark Archer.

"It was all Malcom Merlyn. And as far as I'm concerned, you stabbed yourself in the chest. With an arrow. To save thousands of people. That kind of makes the Hood a Hero, not just a killer. Doesn't it?" Felicity continued, switching her reference to the Hood to an outside party as a waitress came into earshot to ask them if they wanted any dessert.

The grateful look on Oliver's face for changing the reference wasn't unnoticed by the blonde as she smiled and looked over to the waitress. "I think I'll have some cheesecake..."

And as she ordered, Oliver couldn't help but think that this was the best first date he'd ever been on.


	4. Chapter 4: Back to Work

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Arrow?

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"I'm just going to check on something downstairs." It took a brief moment for Felicity to fully register what Oliver had said around her concern for him, and by extension, his sister. And when it did actually register in her mind, it took another few beats for her to get over the shock and rush after him towards the stairway down into the Arrowcave, Dig right beside her.

She honestly should have expected it to be something like this that would drive him to put the Hood back on. Nothing she could say, nothing she could have done, would compare to Oliver's conscience when those he cared about were put in danger. That isn't to say she was glad that Thea had been kidnapped by some misguided Hood worshiping vigilantes.

In his absence, she had, of course, upgraded the hideout. She'd known that, eventually, he would be back. She tried to stop herself from completely nerding out to him over her changes to their hideout. Instead, she rushed to grab the black case holding her welcome home gift for him.

Working directly for Oliver Queen, especially on two full time jobs, didn't exactly leave her wanting for money. Certainly not as financially blessed as Oliver himself was, but she had a certain level of disposable income. So even without access to Queen Consolidated finances – although she could have easily gotten the funding. There weren't many firewalls she couldn't break through to begin with, and considering she'd practically designed the ones that protected QC servers. - Still, the look on Oliver's face when he picked up that customized C.P. Oneida Kestrel compound recurve bow, and called it 'perfect'...Well, that just made the use of her personal funds for her little side project more than worth it.

The look he sent her out of gratefulness didn't hurt either, of course. "I'm going to try and hunt these guys down. Go ahead and get hooded up." Felicity announced, awkwardly trying to break her gaze away Oliver when she realized she was caught up in his eyes.

She started thinking about everything they knew about this vigilante group of hood imposters, even before she'd sat down at the custom built computer system she'd created and booted the monster that drove the three screens up. Her hands flew across the keyboard, her brain moving into that trance it usually did whenever she was around a computer, doing the things she did best.

If only the rest of her life were as simple as computers were. She was comfortable around them. They made sense, Ones and Zeroes were predictable.

Was it bad that the one person she felt truly comfortable around, away from her computers, was a capable killer with deep psychological scars from five years in hell? Probably, but she wasn't going to question it. She didn't even jump when she felt his hot, moist breath on her neck. Did he even realize how close he was to her? She did her best to ignore the shiver that ran down her spine. The shiver that had nothing to do with fear. Regardless, she forced it away as soon as physically possible. Meaning almost immediately. Focusing on the things that were important; Finding Thea.

The surgical amputation clue was what led them to the home of the group. His hand on her shoulder was more of a focus, than the distraction she'd normally think it would be. "Go get your sister back." Felicity encouraged him, turning her eyes to look at him. "And let me know if you need anything."

She'd be tracking him the entire time, of course. She found that she'd almost always done so before the fall of the glades. Even during the Undertaking itself, while she was trying to walk then-Detective Lance through the process of disarming the first earthquake trigger, she'd kept one eye on that third screen of her computer. Following that a little blue dot that represented her boss and his location in reference to the rest of the city. Ready to answer his call and help him at the drop of a hat.

That probably wasn't going to be a habit that would change any time soon.

Oliver, on his part. Shot a look at Felicity when he was halfway up the staircase, heading out of the Arrowcave. She was an oddity, an enigma. She knew the real Oliver Queen, but she didn't judge him. She hated the killing, yet she still encouraged him to put the Hood back on. She was constantly in danger around him, especially when she was hacking into Federal agencies for him; yet she seemed so nonchalant about it. So...comfortable.

And the bow he now held in his hands? That perfectly balanced combination compound/recurve? The one with the sweetest draw he'd ever touched? It was absolutely perfect. Perfect in a way that research by looking at a computer screen just couldn't accomplish, at least not by any stretch of his imagination. There was a certain level of Archery knowledge you could only gain by picking up a bow and trying it.

Had she just gotten lucky?

Maybe.

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A/N: I wrote a whooole lot of stuff for this story in class today. So, while I have to get ready for work now, there's gonna be an upload spree tonight/tomorrow morning.


	5. Chapter 5: New Hobbies

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Anything! I'm a college student. I'm pretty sure I sold my soul to this school...Also. Update spree, go!

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Thwip. Thunk. Thwip. Thunk.

To say that Oliver Queen was intrigued when he descended the stairs into the Arrowcave, plans to use the salmon ladder for a daily workout, and found himself witness to the telltale sounds of arrows being launched into a solid foam target...Well, that would probably be the understatement of the century.

When his eyes witnessed the flash of blonde hair and alabaster skin, standing at the launch point of the target range, he was officially floored. Despite his mental questions earlier, he had expected to find the short cropped dark hair and skin of John Diggle behind the bow.

Granted, she wasn't shooting at any sort of moving target, nor was she hitting the bulls-eye with any regularity, as he would if he were the one launching the arrows. But what the flying hell was Felicity Smoak even doing with a bow to begin with?

"...Maybe I should come back later?" He found himself asking...and then instantly dropping to a crouch when Felicity spun around with a half drawn arrow nocked to the string.

"Oh my God, Oliver. You really have to stop scaring the crap out of me! First my car, now this?" Felicity started rambling after her sigh of mixed relief and exasperation. "I could have shot you!"

"I would have caught it." Oliver assured quickly, almost without thought. It wasn't cockiness...it was a fact, and then he paused with a brief moment of awkward silence. "I didn't know you picked up archery." It was lame, but it was the best thing he could think of to say. He tried to play it off by standing back up to his full height and brushing off his hands, motioning to her bow at the same time.

It was another C.P. Oneida Kestrel. Obviously different from the one she'd given to him, however. Hers appeared to be the factory flat black. A shorter draw was obvious. Probably a light draw weight as well, rather than the max setting of 70 pounds his was consistently stuck on...

"Uh..." The blonde computer nerd struggled to find her explanation, looking down at the bow as if she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "I...Kinda got interested while I was researching your new bow. Figured I needed another hobby besides hacking into Federal agencies, Reddit, and watching you sweat on the salmon ladder. Not that watching you work out is one of my hobbies...Although it is a very nice pastime...and...Not that I want to go around putting arrows in people..."

"But it's relaxing?" Oliver offered, trying to provide her a method with which to escape her own rambling. Walking over towards her, an appraising gaze towards the grouping of arrows buried in her bulls-eye target.

"Uh...kinda. I mean, there's a bit of geometry and trig that goes on in my head while I'm doing this...shooty thingy. But I like math. And it gets my mind off of other things, which can be nice...and it gives me a feel for the different properties of the arrows you could use..."

"You're experimenting with my arrows?" Oliver blinked, then raised both of his eyebrows inquisitively.

"...It sounds so dirty when you say it like that." Felicity blushed, but she was giggling. And it took a moment for Oliver to process what he'd said, and exactly how it could be construed as a dirty statement. When it did register, he burst out, and laughter filled the Arrowcave.

When the laughter finally died down a few long moments later, Oliver shook his head fondly, moving over towards the tables in the center of the room and sliding his shirt off. "I came over to work out. Want to learn some self-defense, since you're already working on the arrowy business?"

Felicity blinked, her brain taking a moment to reboot. And then another moment to realize that One; she was staring. Two; he was talking. "Sorry, what? I was distracted." The incredulous and clueless look that answered her did nothing but cause her cheeks to burn hotly.

"I asked if you wanted to spar with me." Oliver repeated, slowly. Blinking until he realized exactly what she had been 'distracted' by. And then his own brain decided to quit working.

"Uh...sure? I won't be much of a workout for you. Not that I couldn't be...Not that you need to know that...I'm just going to shut up now." Felicity decided to pretend she hadn't just said any of that.

She did, however, start to second guess herself when she made it to the sparring mat. Where one Oliver Queen stood. One shirtless Oliver Queen. If she ended up pinned to the floor by a sweaty and shirtless Oliver Queen, she wasn't sure she-You know what, scratch that. She was absolutely positive her brain would go off and cause her mouth to say something absolutely terrible. If not make her body do something.

"Now flip me." Oliver instructed, interrupting her train of thought, and inviting her to come at him. Her mind went blank once again. "Flip...You?"

He simply chuckled. "Yes, flip me." And with that, he proceeded to step towards her. "Like this." He slowly went through the motions, the process of the flip, against her, making sure she followed every move. Every step. And that she understood. "Use my body weight against me."

This was a terrible idea, really.


	6. Chapter 6: Escape From Reality

Disclaimer: Can I own something? I mean, I know I'm in college. But...

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"Hey." Felicity Smoak greeted, sliding through the door-frame into Oliver's office at Queen Consolidated once again. She made a mental note that she really needed to think of a better greeting next time.

Oliver, for his part in it, looked up at her, blinking once at her presence as she walked into the room. "I figured you might want to talk." She supplied, a slightly awkward statement, but a nonchalant shrug nonetheless. Yesterday, his mother had been ruled 'not guilty' in her trial. A ruling that made absolutely no sense whatsoever to him. Of course, he had no desire to see his mother put in prison. But seriously, it just didn't make any sense that she'd gotten off in her part of the undertaking Scott-free.

"About?" He asked, somewhat cautious. After five years on an island, people skills weren't exactly one of his strengths anymore. Not that they ever really had been. So it was unsurprising to her that he was cautious of the phrase 'talking'.

"Whatever you feel like talking about." Felicity shrugged, moving to sit on the corner of his desk. "Maybe the weather? It's kind of chilly today. Don't you think?"

Felicity Smoak. Never failing to be remarkable. Knowing full well that he needed some company, fully aware that he wouldn't want to talk about the things that bothered him, and holding no expectations for him to talk about that which was personal to him.

He'd already told her about a tiny piece of his time in hell. And she hadn't pushed for anything further. She accepted only what he was willing to share, asking only for clarification in things which were confusing. Maybe she had been a therapist in a past life?

"It is, isn't it?" Oliver mused, looking out the window. Well...the outside window, anyway. The entire office was basically surrounded in windows. It even looked cold outside. There was no snow, or frost. At least none that was visible. But...he couldn't explain it. But it looked like there should be. "Almost like it was on the island..." He wondered, a flash of that first dinner back home, and the phrase he'd given to Thea when she'd asked what it had been like on the island; Cold.

"Five years without heating and air conditioning. Talk about taking things for granted, hmm? I could tell it gets pretty hot there too. You were really sweaty...when you were...on top of me. Or maybe I was ju-don't even go there, Felicity." The blonde berated herself. Not even bothering to fight the blush that blossomed over the skin of her cheeks.

Oliver himself couldn't help it. He laughed. It seemed her rambling never failed to make him laugh, more and more, as time went on, every time he noticed her make some adorable slip-up..."No kidding. It actually took me a bit to get used to them again when I got back. I spent the first night at home with the window wide open in the middle of a thunderstorm..."

Maybe she was imagining it, but Felicity could have sworn she saw him wince at the very mention of 'home'. Back to the complicated drama that had surrounded his family ever since his return from Purgatory.

"You don't want to go home tonight, do you?" The geek voiced her observations. She really should have been a detective. "I mean, Your mom is home now. But you're still not sure how to feel about her involvement in the Undertaking, and you really don't want to be alone with her, considering your sister spends most of her time either at Verdant or with her boyfriend..."

"Perceptive as ever." Oliver praised with a sad smile. "Felicity Smoak. Computer expert. Detective. Therapist. Amateur archer. Is there anything you can't do?"

"Eat pork." She deadpanned. So much so that he almost didn't realize it was a joke, until she failed to hold in the giggles. "If you don't want to go home, How about you come over to my apartment? We can watch some of the movies you missed in those five years and failed to catch up with while you were busy putting arrows in people. We can have a nice, quiet, home-cooked meal. Talk about anything but your problems. Unless you want to talk about your problems. But I get the feeling you could use a vacation from everything, and my couch is free..."

"Felicity..." It probably wasn't a good thing that she'd come to rely on his gentle interruptions in order to put a halt to her rambling...

"A night of vacation sounds nice." He continued after a moment of letting her get her thoughts back together. "It's a date. Want me to meet you somewhere? Or should I just parkour to your place after work?" He joked. How had he become so comfortable and easy-going around her?

She smiled back at him. "Just meet me at my car after work. We'll drop by Verdant on the way over there and pick up one of the changes of clothes I _know _you keep downstairs."

"Sounds good." Ugh, that playboy-except-not-playboy-anymore smirk of his. "Second date, huh?"

Of course. Of course he would mention that. And of course her body would betray her and blush uncontrollably. "Apparently."

"Glad I didn't scare you off the first time."

"Never." Felicity vowed. Having enjoyed his trust and comfort with her. Hopefully, it would take a little bit more time before he started to try and push her away.

And when he did, she was determined to make it one fight that was too difficult for him to win.


	7. Chapter 7: Movie Night

A/N: Four of four! I wrote WAAAY too much today.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I wouldn't be broke.

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"The way he's holding that bow is ridiculous!" Oliver waved incredulously at the screen of Felicity's TV as him and the blonde in mention sat on her couch, curled up, eating a giant bowl of popcorn and watching James Cameron's _Avatar _in her darkened living room. The current scene...with Neytiri teaching Jake how to shoot with a bow and arrow, reminded him a _lot _of when Shado had taught _him_ how to shoot. But that weird inverted-arm draw thing they were doing just looked entirely impractical and uncomfortable.

Felicity laughed without abandon. "I don't know. Here I was thinking this scene might remind you of something." Having heard the whole story about Shado. At least up until the end of Fyres and his crazy scheme to shoot down an airliner.

"It really does." Oliver conceded. Trying to shake his head clear of the utter ridiculosity he was witnessing in this scene. "I miss her...But she's just another life on my conscience."

To her credit, Felicity didn't say anything. She just turned to him with interest, wide blue bespectacled eyes peering at him in interest, she mentally tuned out the audio of the movie she'd seen at least a dozen times, and focused her attention solely on him, and his story. "Professor Ivo had her and Sara...Yes, that Sara-" She had absolutely no clue who Professor Ivo was, or how Sara was there. But she didn't ask, either. He would get to there eventually. "-I found out she'd survived the wreck. But anyway, Ivo had both of them on their knees, at gunpoint...And he told me to choose between them. I...It wasn't a choice I could make. I ran forward to offer him my life instead. But...I guess I was blocking his shot at Sara moreso than his shot at Shado."

Felicity didn't even need to hear the shaky breath that followed that explanation to know what happened next. "He shot her..." The crack in his voice...That broke her heart. And made the depths of her soul forever enraged at whoever the flying hell this 'Professor Ivo' had thought he was. Still, she didn't interrupt. This was Oliver's time to vent. And she wasn't going to interrupt him. She wasn't going to give him any reason to stop, before he'd gotten out what he needed to.

A period of silence followed his statement, and when Oliver finally took in another sharp, unsteady intake of breath, she couldn't help but listen intently. "I couldn't save Sara in the end either. I failed her. I failed Shado. I failed Slade..."

The blonde refused to listen to anymore. She just leaned forward, and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders. Holding this tortured survivor close, No more words were needed on either side. The man under the hood simply broke down in the arms of a code monkey. And Felicity internally cursed the name of Malcolm Merlyn for everything he'd done to further complicate Oliver's life.

She hadn't planned on spending tonight being the shoulder for Oliver to cry on. To be honest, she hadn't expected Oliver to let himself go enough to do such a thing to begin with. But now that they had arrived at that point, she wouldn't change a thing. "You saved me." She offered quietly. Not pulling away, reminding him that, even disregarding when he'd rescued her in the casino...Though that had been part of the operation plan from the start, she had also been in the Arrowcave at the time of the Undertaking. The Arrowcave that happened to be smack in the Glades. The cave that was damaged enough by the second device, clear on the other side of the Glades. The first one would have easily buried her alive. "And hundreds of others. Don't torture yourself for not being perfect, Oliver. You didn't fail anyone. And if you insist on doing this to yourself, you're just going to be miserable."

There was a longer period of silence following that. And she couldn't tell if Oliver had even listened to what she had to say. Hopefully he had. "Thank you." he mumbled after a bit, pulling away from her. Trying to return his attention to the movie. He felt better, but...

"And don't you dare apologize, Oliver Queen. You needed that." Felicity threatened before any words could escape his half-open mouth. She poked him in the chest with an indignant index finger, and succeeded in drawing a laugh from him.

"What would I do without you?" The vigilante questioned softly, leading her heart to skip a beat...or two...or maybe more than that.

"Well...I would imagine you would probably have died somewhere in a Queen Consolidated parking garage..." She somehow managed to joke, after getting her heart back under control.

Another laugh. The sudden turnaround from crying on her shoulder, to laughing twice in a row, made Felicity happy. "Probably." Oliver mumbled, wrapping an arm across her shoulders, and leaned his head on hers; breathing in the scent of vanilla that wafted into his nostrils from each strand of her hair.

Felicity barely even noticed that she was on her couch. Cuddled up to Oliver Queen. AKA The Hood. AKA now The Arrow, watching a movie that could best be described as Pocahontas in Space.

She couldn't recall a better night spent at home in...well, a long time. Although as far as nights in general went, her last night out with this man came pretty close.

"I could get used to this." She felt, more than heard, Oliver speak. His chest rumbling against the side of her face with the very words that were running through her mind at the same time.

"Does that mean a third date?" Felicity smirked.

"...I was thinking more like girlfriend. But I'll take what I can get."

Her heart skipped more than a few beats this time, and she couldn't believe her ears...but even the idea that he could have possibly said that, was enough to put a permanent smile on her face.

"...And I still think the way he holds that bow is freaking ridiculous." Oliver grumbled, having turned his attention back to the movie after a moment of silence.

Felicity's laughter subsequently filled the room.


	8. Chapter 8: The Dollmaker

A/N: So, here we go with the Dollmaker episode! Around here is when it really starts breaking away from canon, instead of just being a 'between the scenes' ordeal. That being said, I think the route I've chosen to take with this story might be a bit ridiculous to some people. I apologize!

Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't sue me. please? I'M JUST A POOR COLLEGE STUDENT

* * *

"More dangerous than going undercover in a mob casino? Or jumping off a plane?" Felicity questioned the pair of men before her, slowly stepping towards them after voicing her solution for the current dilemma; Finding Barton Mathis. "It's my life. It's my choice." She declared firmly, making sure to accompany it with a pointed look in Oliver's general direction. That statement relevant to far more than just this current situation with the Dollmaker.

It had been just a few days since he spent the night on her couch, watching a selection of movies that he'd missed in his five years on the island. And, predictably, it hadn't taken long for Oliver to start sending her those looks. The looks that told her he was second guessing his actions, that he was worrying about how much danger he was putting her in. And so her look, and her declaration, was just as much meant to deal with that problem. It was her life. It was her choice.

And her choice was refusing to allow him to push her away. Though he seemed clueless as to the reason for her pointed look. Typical, typical dense male. Clearly, she would have to make her point abundantly clear to him...later. Y'know, when there wasn't a psychopath out on the loose in Starling City, turning young girls into porcelain figures for no particular reason whatsoever.

Oliver's obvious disapproval of her proposed plan wasn't the only issue she had to deal with in order to get this problem dealt with. Dig was just as much, if not more-so disapproving of this apparently asinine plan of hers than Oliver. Probably to be expected; he treated her like a little sister. And he'd had absolutely no part in that whole plan with her infiltrating the mob casino. He hadn't been very pleased to hear about it after the fact either.

Her mind easily flashed back to that series of events, she'd had to fight Oliver just as much back then to allow her to put herself in danger for the mission. Of course, back then, the purpose had been to rescue Walter. Her support of Oliver as the vigilante had had nothing to do with it, and that had probably been the reason he'd agreed to it at the time; Walter had been her entire purpose for joining him in the first place. He couldn't really deny her the chance to help with rescuing him. This time? She had no personal stake in stopping the Dollmaker. But here she was, proposing the idea of putting herself in danger once again. Maybe Oliver was rubbing off on her. It felt like she was becoming a vigilante in her own right.

Eventually, the two men grudgingly agreed to her plan, and she found herself walking out of the last of the four stores in Starling City that sold 'Mermaiden'. The skin cream by which one Barton Mathis chose his victims. She couldn't help herself from making a joke about Oliver reimbursing her for the expenses and how she'd saved her receipts. She didn't really expect the reimbursement either way. Maybe she'd actually even use the cream, who knew?

"Well, she must _really _believe in you." She heard Officer Quentin Lance mention over their earpiece radios, and she internally smirked. He really had no idea how much she truly believed in Oliver. Not so much to protect her, as to do the right thing in the end. That's what really mattered to her. What would happen if he found out who the Arrow really was? It would be interesting to see how much his hatred for Oliver Queen and his grudging respect for the Arrow would conflict. Not to mention how his process of thought would run if he found out the very man he thought had destroyed both of his daughters, had been fighting day in and out to protect Laurel and make up for his sins with Sara ever since.

She wasn't going to lie; when she caught sight of the man with that ridiculous hat on, she was seriously freaked out. She trusted Oliver to keep her safe from his over-watch position, but the conversation he'd just had with Officer Lance about how the Officer had chased the Dollmaker so relentlessly in a misguided attempt to make up for his inability to save Sara, and how every girl Barton Mathis killed represented a personal failure. Well...that conversation had to be playing at some strings deep in the very fibers that made up the man known to the public as Oliver Queen, to the criminals of the city as 'The Arrow' or 'The Vigilante', and to her, simply as Oliver.

It turned out, of course, that the man with the ridiculous hat was a false alarm and, in fact, not Barton Mathis.

Which made it all the more terrifying when she turned to find herself face to face with the psychopath in question.

She screamed out for help, hoping she'd been loud enough for the three men that were watching her back to hear her and locate her. Her self-defense sessions with Oliver rushing back into her head, her body moved of it's own volition; raising her foot and slamming the heel of her stiletto into the Dollmakers foot, drawing a short shout of pain from the killer that almost drowned out the loud crack of bones snapping. She didn't stop; kicking her foot forward, past his lower leg, hooking it around his ankle and drawing it back while she shoved harshly at his chest. Using his body-weight against him. Just as Oliver had taught her. He went crashing to the concrete of the alley and let out another grunt.

When the arrow pierced his shoulder, he let out another cry of pain. And that was apparently the point where he decided to cut his losses. Scrambling to his feet and away from Felicity, he turned tail and ran, yanking the arrow from his flesh and carelessly tossing it on the ground behind him as he escaped with Lance and Diggle in hot pursuit.

Oliver however, stopped to make sure she was alright. "I'm fine. Go." Felicity insisted, waving him off, even though she was breathing heavily and her heart was beating wildly at the fright from the situation. Really, his concern was touching; but it wasn't doing anything to stop the Dollmaker, and if they didn't do something to stop him here and now, then all the danger she'd just put herself in would be in vain.

The stern look that accompanied her order overpowered the look of concern on Oliver's face, obvious even underneath the shadow of his hood. "Go!" She repeated, and finally, Oliver turned around and ran off after his prey.

As did she; turning to rush towards the car that Dig had recently vacated. If she had the laptop that was present in the back-seat, at least she would be able to do _something_. Maybe she could be of some use if this came down to an extended chase.

The thought that she had actually fought back against a serial killer and survived was repeating through her mind like a broken record. And she was desperately trying to shove it to the back of her mind.

It didn't take long for Lance's call for help to result in Police showing up to the scene. Apparently, Mathis had disappeared into thin air while Oliver had been distracted by the sound of the approaching sirens, knowing full well that the police were more likely to chase after him than the active and uncontrolled serial killer, for whatever reason.

And now Mathis was gone. And Oliver had the urge to get back to Felicity once again and make damn sure that she really was alright.

The fact that Mathis had been limp-running from them after Felicity smashed his foot with her heel made him feel a little better. Maybe she wasn't in as much danger as he'd thought around him. Still way too much danger. But he doubted he'd ever be able to stop her.

He wasn't sure if that scared him or endeared him.

Maybe both?


	9. Chapter 9: The Count

A/N: So I skipped ahead to the Count. Couldn't really think of a good way to do the Sara ordeal, or Russia. So I just decided to do Sara in memories. As for Russia...Basically, it's the same as the show. Except Oliver didn't sleep with Isabel.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I wouldn't be going to school right now.

* * *

To say that she felt funny would be the understatement of the year. And at some point, Felicity Smoak had honestly begun to wonder exactly what the hell was in the syringe that the Count had used to knock her out when he'd first grabbed her.

The fact that he was sporting a large bruise on the side of his face, and was limping and hissing in pain with each step due to an injured foot made her smirk. But that did nothing to tell her what was in her body right now, and she made a mental note to run a tox screen on herself as soon as she got back to the cave. Whatever was in that sedative, it wasn't Vertigo. That much was obvious. No...that was what was in the much large double syringe he was holding to the side of her neck right now in a silent threat as they waited for Oliver, in his Arrow getup, to come and save her.

On the subject of how weird she felt. She was _burning up_, and her skin was covered in a light layer of clammy sweat. Yet she was freezing at the same time, her teeth chattering at the cool air despite the fact that her body felt like it was made of molten lava. But her focus wasn't wavering one bit. Her vision far from blurry. Well, it was...but only _inside _her glasses. She knew the symptoms of Vertigo. She knew them well; both Dig and Oliver having suffered from large doses of the drug. This definitely wasn't Vertigo. Her vision was sharp. Her focus even more-so, she could pick out little details, even in the dark, that she otherwise never would have noticed about the Queen Consolidated executive boardroom. Time was dragging on, but her body was so responsive...

As scared as she was, there was a certain level of confidence in her verbal interactions with the Count. Part of her waiting for Oliver to show up. Part of her hoping he wouldn't show.

It was a pointless hope, she knew. But it was there nonetheless. Not that she didn't want to be saved, or anything. But she just didn't want to put him in this kind of situation.

And when Oliver did show up, the following events moved _so _quickly. But they were etched in her mind in such vivid detail. The worst of which by far was the panicked and desperate look on Oliver's face when the Count moved the syringe closer to her neck. The anger and the pain as he drew back the bow again and again, burying a trio of arrows into the chest of The Count before the drug lords body crashed through the window to fall to his death on a taxi below.

Felicity really hoped whoever owned that taxi had good insurance.

Her heart broke when it registered that the Count was dead. That Oliver had just killed again. And that he had killed _for her_. An act he wouldn't have had to commit. A promise to his late friend that he wouldn't have had to break, had she not run off and gotten herself into trouble trying to find answers on her own.

Even if she was far more capable now in the areas of self-defense than she had been a couple months ago when he'd returned from the island the second time, it had still been an astoundingly stupid decision. She was no Oliver. Or Sara.

Sara. That had been an interesting series of events in it's own right. When Oliver had figured out who the other vigilante running around the city and protecting Laurel had been, it wasn't like he'd seen a ghost. Oh no. He, quite literally, had. As far as his psyche was concerned, anyway. She'd somehow survived the yacht wreck itself. And then he'd had to go through the pain of losing her again to seemingly certain death. How many times could one poor girl get lucky?

Felicity had seen the guilt on Oliver's face every time he looked at Sara. Be she Sara, or in her canary guise. But it was especially obvious when she was the Canary. He felt personally responsible for the hell she'd been through. It was a look that Felicity always hated to see, and right now it was plastered across his face in reference to her situation. She wasn't about to have any of that, and she would set him straight.

Preferably after she figured out what the hell was running through her system.

She was waiting for the Tox results when she pulled him to the side of the cave later on. To apologize for putting him in the situation where he had to make the choice to kill again. And then he'd said those words. "Felicity...He had you, and he was going to hurt you. There was no choice to make."

All while holding her hand in a way that made her heart flutter.

She wasn't sure if those words made her feel better, or worse. She wasn't sorry that the Count was dead. He was probably the one man that made her feel like some people just had to die to be stopped. The only thing she was sorry about, was that Oliver had to be the one to do it. After everything he'd been through, he'd had to break another promise. And for someone who took the blame for everything physically imaginable, and who'd had to break so many personal barriers in order to survive...That just couldn't be good for his mental health.

She was no psychiatrist, of course. She was all computers. Human just didn't make sense to her. Oliver was an...no..._the _exception. He was broken, damaged, and where everyone else seemed to be trying to 'fix' him. To make him _forget _about the five years in hell that shaped the man he was today, she felt like she was the only one who didn't care. She just wanted to help him adjust to life after the island. She wanted to help him apply the lessons he'd learned. Her devotion towards the man was a tad frightening, even to her. But it would feel wrong to give up on him now.

"Oliver." She found herself speaking up as he turned to ascend the staircase out of the cave. Again, causing him to turn around. Her breath caught in her throat just as her eyes caught his. "My place, tonight?" She offered softly. "I don't think either of us really want to be alone tonight."

She was surprised that she managed not to babble incoherently. And she was right, of course. She didn't want to be alone, that was for damn sure. She was still thinking about the ordeal with the Count. And whatever the hell was running through her body, but he didn't need to know that. Not yet.

Regardless, she felt safe around him. And that was a feeling she desperately needed right now.

Something told her that he would feel better if he were allowed to keep an eye on her and personally ensure her safety. The hesitant, yet relieved look that washed across his face at her offer told her that she was right.

"I'll be there at eight." Oliver confirmed. Yes! Her puppy dog eyes still worked! She forced herself to just smile happily as she boss-slash...what was he? Turned to leave again. She managed to keep the blush that threatened to rise down in whatever box it was trying to escape from.

And then her computer dinged with the Tox results.


	10. Chapter 10: Resistance is Futile

A/N: So this chapter is super short. I figured it made a nice little drabble on it's own.

Disclaimer: Pfft. I wish.

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Having computers inside you was probably the wet dream of every computer nerd. Ever. For Felicity Smoak, the reality of that dream was far more disturbing than she'd ever imagined it could be.

Then again, when the reason those computers were there was because of some insane drug lord with a grudge on your boss, that was probably the proper response to have. Especially when there were thousands of these little computers. Running through her bloodstream.

_Especially _when you happen to be a good enough hacker to break into the programming of these tiny little computers to discover that the nanites were designed to be tiny little shock probes, tiny little chemical factories, and tiny little recording devices that sharpened her senses and recording freaking _everything_.

Then the realization had come that the Count had planned to introduce Vertigo to her system, ineffective because of these nanites, and then use her as a complacent human drug factory at the very least, just to torture Oliver...well, that was both deeply disturbing to her, as well as highly enraging.

Do. Not. Mess. with Felicity Smoak. Especially not when you're using technology.

It took her longer than she would care to admit, through her haze of anger at the son-of-a-bitch that had forced Oliver to kill again, to come up with the idea of reprogramming the nano-computers for her own purposes. She almost felt like she needed to resign her nerd license.

The debate on whether or not to tell Oliver...well, that was a question that haunted her even now; as she was curled up in his arms in her bed, trying to sleep away the whole ordeal in the feeling of safety that his body provided.


	11. Chapter 11: Trust is Two-Way Street

A/N: So, to make up for the super short chapter from before...here's a longer one. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I think we know the drill by now.

* * *

Using her own body as a testbed for some weird neuro-transmitter amplification experiment probably wasn't the best idea she ever had. And keeping it a secret from Oliver Queen was probably the worst idea she'd ever had. It all came to a head when time slowed down; her heart beating loudly in her ears and everything else tuning out as she crouched low, grabbing Oliver's wrist during a high-speed...at least for her...sparring exercise...and then proceeded to twist his arm and flip him clear over her body to land with a painful-sounding thud on the back.

The second he started blinking in stunned shock and bewildered pain, she knew she had some explaining to do.

"Where did _that_ come from?" he groaned out as he tried to sit up on the mat.

Scratch that, a _lot _of explaining to do.

Why hadn't she just told him about this the night she first found out?

"Uhm...I'm trying out a new toy?" Felicity offered, trying her best to sound completely innocent.

The disbelieving look on Oliver's face told her that she'd failed miserably, and she started cursing herself as she heard her own voice repeated in her head. New toy. She could not have _possibly _picked a worse thing to say.

Before she could stop it, her mouth opened of it's own volition and began spilling the beans in a horrifying string of word vomit. "If by toy you mean nanites. Which are tiny little computery robots. Which you probably already know. And you're probably wondering where nanites came from. And the answer would totally _not _be that the Count planned to use me as a human drug factory and injected them with a sedative dose..." Crap. The look of deep alarm had her cursing herself for her poor choice of words and her inability to just _shut. up._

"Which I totally hacked and reprogrammed! And now I'm trying out for different uses. Which sounds really bad because you're probably thinking I'm using myself as a human guinea pig. Which you probably wouldn't approve of..."

Crap. Crap crap crap crap crap. Oliver looked shocked, speechless, worried, alarmed, concerned...Why couldn't she just _stop talking?!_

There were a few deep breaths from the man before her. "...Nanites? Count? Drug Factory?" He counted off, his growing confusion obvious from the tone of his voice. "Felicity, would you mind _please _slowing down and starting from the beginning?"

Felicity took a deep breath in response and squeezed her eyes tightly shut, praying to God, or whatever other deity would listen, for her heart to slow down. She did make a mental note to herself to find a better way to control the nanites with their adrenaline synthesis.

"Um...The count. When he first grabbed me. I kinda sorta maybe stomped on his foot and hit him in the head with my purse. And he may or may not have hit me with a sedative. That may or may not have been laced with nanites. To get me to QC without a fight. And I may or may not have noticed before you showed up and uh...discounted him...That was a terrible joke. Forget I said that." And it really was a _terrible _joke, but mercifully it got Oliver's confused and alarmed visage to break for a moment as he tried to fight the smile.

"As I was saying! I may or may not have noticed that I may or may not have been feeling really weird. So I may or may not have run a tox screen on myself when we got back to the cave, just in case. And I may or may not have found a bunch of tiny little robot computers running around my bloodstream. Which is probably every computer nerds wet dream. Unless they've seen Star Trek, because the Borg are really creepy. But I was pretty freaked out, especially when I figured out he was probably planning on using me as a walking drug factory to torture you..." She swallowed the lump in her throat at the look he shot her.

"But then I realized I could reprogram them. So I did. And that..." Felicity motioned to the vaguely Oliver shaped distortion in the sparring mat. "...May or may not have been those tiny little robot computers flooding my body with adrenaline and the like."

"Felicity." She shivered at the way he said her name. It always got to her, especially when he said it like that. Though she definitely imagined him saying it under different circumstances...Focus, Felicity! "Why didn't you tell me?"

Crap. That was the one question she was hoping he wouldn't ask. She grimaced visibly, at both the question and the soft look of betrayal on his face. He'd trusted her with his memories of the island, and here it appeared she didn't trust him with something like this?

"I wanted to! I really did. I just figured you had enough on your plate for now, what with all the vow-breaking and back and forth kill-don't kill-kill decisions that I didn't want to add anything to the pile." She explained, giving him an apologetic look. "That and I was kinda scared out of my mind and I wanted to figure things out for myself for once instead of running to you for hel...Oliver?" She questioned, noting he seemed kind of spaced out. "...Why do you look like this is reminding you of something?"

"...Because it is." Oliver breathed after a moment of silence. "Mirakuru."

"Mirakuru?" She repeated, furrowing her brow as she tried to figure out what the heck he was talking about.

He nodded. "I told you about how Professor Ivo killed Shado, right?" He questioned, and waited for her nod of confirmation, a brief recall back to the night in her apartment, watching Avatar, before he continued his explanation. "Well, the entire reason Professor Ivo was on the island to begin with was because of Mirakuru. There were these Japanese Army corpses from World War 2 in a cave. And they were...disfigured. Deformed. I'd never seen anything like it. And there was a Japanese submarine there, with Mirakuru on it. A miracle drug to create human weapons. Ivo got it to work. And I had to fight a few of the results of this on the island..." He trailed off.

"Tough fight?" Felicity piped up softly, stepping closer to him and wrapping an arm around him. Trying hard not to notice that she was essentially hugging his sweaty, shirtless torso.

She failed miserably.

Oliver sighed in defeat at the memories. "It was how I thought Sara died the second time." He admitted with a whisper, running a hand over his short hair. "Superhuman strength, speed, reflexes..." Obviously, it was an experience that he never wanted to repeat.

"I'm not like them, Oliver." Felicity insisted. "For one, I'm on your side." She smirked, poking him in the collarbone. "For two, I had to hack these stupid things to do this. And for three; It's not superhuman...Just human. With some techno-bits to make things more efficient. Not that I'm saying I'm a robot. I can imagine you don't want your girlfriend being a robot. Am I your girlfriend? I'm not reall-"

She was expecting him to interrupt her babblefest with the same gentle interruption of her name or the hand on her shoulder that he usually had.

So needless to say, when his hands covered her cheeks and his lips brushed against hers just the way she had imagined constantly over the last year, it wasn't exactly the interruption she'd been expecting. Not that she was complaining.

The kiss clearly conveyed his concern for her, his desire to keep her safe. His gratefulness for the fact that she kept him grounded...

All of this piled together with the fact that her body felt like a teenager all over again because of these frakking nanites messing with her hormone levels. Perhaps she had a few more tweaks to make.

Later.

Right now, all she wanted to do was wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him for all she was worth.

So she did.

And that's exactly the scene that John Diggle walked in on.


	12. Chapter 12: I Can Dig It

A/N: Short little drabble from Dig. How do you guys feel about 5 chapters in one night?

Disclaimer: jfkjakfjidontownthiskjreigjiajgika

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John Diggle was not an idiot. He had seen the tension between his two partners in crime-fighting crime from day one, when Felicity had tried to lock the doors to the Arrowcave in order to keep Oliver inside.

That being said, when he walked into said Arrowcave it report a break-in at QC Applied Sciences, and found the pair devouring each other on the sparring mat, in workout clothes, he was _not_ expecting it.

"Uh...Am I interrupting something?" As confused as he was, he knew the answer to that question, and it took all he had in both self-control and the seriousness of the situation not to burst out laughing when Felicity launched away from Oliver as if she'd been shot out of a cannon that happened to coat her face in tomato sauce.

Scratch that, her face was redder than tomato sauce.

At the same time, Oliver had whirled around, all up in 'defend Felicity' mode. His hands already up in a defensive stance, before he realized that it was just Dig. The reaction was both amusing and touching to see. Regardless, he had some news to break. He cleared his throat. "While I would _love _to give you two crap for not tell me about this..." He leveled a glare at both of them. "We've got bigger problems. There's been a break-in at QC Applied Sciences. The police want Mr. Queen at the scene. Let's go." He invited, beckoning for them to follow after him.

For both Oliver and Felicity, the distraction was more than welcome. At least it lessened the embarrassment.

Of course, when they discovered what was going on, and the effect it had on Oliver, Felicity Smoak would have happily dealt with the embarrassment instead.


	13. Chapter 13: Do What You Need To Do

A/N: eh, y'know what, why not. Six in a day!

Disclaimer: I'm getting tired of adding these.

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By the end of the day, Felicty Smoak was torn between hugging Oliver Queen tight against he body to comfort him and shield him against the idea of the Mirakuru resurgence, and smacking him across the cheek for the jealous looks he'd shot whenever Barry interacted with her. Barry Allen was a fellow socially awkward nerd, so it went without saying that him and her got along well. And they'd had to work closely to answer the question of who was responsible for the break-in.

That being said, she'd noticed the admiring comments that Barry had dropped on her, and she hoped she'd been sufficiently non-responsive to them that he'd be stopping soon. Sure, he was cute. But if Oliver thought she was going to jump to another guy after _that _kiss, he was crazy.

"Oliver?" She found herself murmuring as she walked up behind him in the cave. He was sitting at her computer desk in the hideout. Normally, someone being around her computers was a capital offense. But for some reason, with Oliver, she didn't mind. And her hands gravitated to his shoulders, beginning to knead them softly.

"Mmm?" Oliver moaned, muffled by his unopened mouth. A beautiful sound to her ears, and she blushed as she imagined herself causing him to make those same noises under much different circumstances.

"Must be hard, having to deal with Mirakuru again..." Felicity mused, continuing the shoulder massage.

"You have no idea." Her boss and favorite vigilante breathed out.

"Maybe not. But I'm worried about you." She murmured, digging her thumbs deep into the knotted muscle of his draw shoulder. "When you deal with guys like this on the island, it was kill or be killed. And you lived. And I'm really glad. But now you're trying a new way of not-killing. Which I'm happy for. I don't want you to have any more blood on your hands than necessary. But I'm afraid you won't do what it takes to survive." She babbled quietly, voicing her concerns. Trusting him with her fears.

Oliver's eyes opened and he turned his head to peer at her out of the corner of eye, over his shoulder. "What do you mean?" He asked, sounding both cautious and curious.

"What I mean is I don't think anyone, Tommy included, would be upset if you killed someone to survive. You had to do it for five years and everyone was happy you got home safe and sound. Killing to survive when there isn't any other choice isn't murder, it's self-defense. If it's the only option. Then it's kinda the only option. Not that I want you to kill. I just want you to survive. Because I'd be very upset if you died."

Oliver's face shifted from scrunching into a frown at the mention of killing again, not to mention Tommy, to twitching upwards into a smile at her rambling.

"And while I'm already rambling, don't worry about me and Barry. You jealous goofball." She found herself scoffing, slapping his neck playfully. "The only reason I'm working with him is for _you_. Yes, he's fun to talk to. And he's a little cute. But I'm here with you right now for a reason. Apparently I like dark, brooding guys with mouth-watering abs...did I say that out loud? Anyway, I'm here. With you. For a reason. And don't ask what that reason is because I honestly have no idea. But it's there."

"...you think I'm jealous?" Oliver asked, trying to hide his denial behind a veil of bewilderment. Leading to another smack to his neck. "Ow!" he whined, reaching up to rub the spot she'd smacked. It was amazing how he could deal with a gunshot wound to the shoulder, or stab himself with an arrow, and not complain. But a slap to the neck? Oh, he'd whine...

"I thought I told you you don't have to pretend with me. And yes, you're jealous. I watch you more than you think...wow. That just sounded really creepy. Not like that."

That dragged a laugh out of Oliver for whatever reason. "I love your rambling." He admitted with a murmur. Reaching up with his hand and placing over top hers, still on his shoulder, and lightly grasped it. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Stop that." Felicity whined herself. Her body felt like it was controlling her, not the other way around. And she was perfectly okay with Oliver being the only person in the world to know _that _particular secret at this point in time. "My body is going nuts right now and you know it. And for right now, you're going to be the only one to know that." She was confused when she realized that Oliver's shoulder was shaking as he tried _really hard _not to chuckle. And she pulled up the mental recap of what she'd just said, wondering what could be so funny. Her cheeks flamed as she recalled the 'body going nuts' part.

"Not like that! Not that you don't make my body go-Shut up Felicity." She berated herself, wasting no time in changing that to a growl and playful glare shot in Oliver's direction when he could no longer hold in the laughs.

"Yeah yeah yeah, laugh it up Queen." Felicity mumbled. Secretly enjoying his laughs, and unable to stop her own grin.


	14. Chapter 14: Every Action Has A Reaction

A/N: Here begins the upload spree for this week. Try to keep up. XP

Disclaimer: Yeah yeah yeah, I know. Not mine. =(

* * *

There was very little that Felicity dreaded more than Oliver's reaction when he woke up and found out that she'd gone to Barry for help when she didn't know how to save him. Which normally would have been bad enough on it's own, but this particular instance meant that one Barry Allen had learned of Oliver's secret identity as the Arrow.

And Felicity felt physically sick, having betrayed that trust that Oliver had bestowed on her with that secret. Even if it was to protect the secret, ultimately, by keeping him out of the hospital. Where people would ask questions, but still. It was a choice she'd had to make in order to save Oliver's life.

Apparently, this was also the point where Barry realized how much she actually cared about Oliver, and additionally, the point where she began to question if Barry actually had a bigger crush on her, or on Oliver. His every free moment was spent exploring the Arrowcave would have proved amusing to watch, had she not been so absorbed with Oliver.

Predictably, Dig also seemingly thought it was amusing that she was sitting in her chair at Oliver's bedside, browsing the internet on her Surface, with her feet resting on the edge of Oliver's bed, rather than at her computer desk a whopping three feet away at the trio of computer screens that made up the display interface of that beast of a computer she'd built a few months before.

When she heard another snort of laughter from him, she made sure to look over her shoulder and target him with the most withering glare she could muster at this point in time. It wasn't like he wouldn't be in the same position if this were Lyla in the bed, rather than Oliver. So he didn't really have a whole lot of room to laugh, if you asked her.

Her attention instantly shot back to Oliver when she heard the groan. It took her less than an instant to shoot forward and grasp his hand lightly with her own, and an immediate rush of relief spread through her body that he was now waking up. "Oliver!" She greeted-slash-urged as he struggled to come to full consciousness.

"Felicity?" Oliver questioned weakly, his eyes cracking open slowly. He sounded utterly exhausted. She ignored that and smiled at him. "Welcome back. Don't kill me." It was all she said, and it lead him to a figurative brick wall of utter confusion. What would lead him to kill her? Under any circumstances?

Annnd then Barry Allen appeared out of nowhere, and the smile on Felicity's face became noticeably tight. Her eyes conveyed a crystal clear look of guilt with a metric ton of apologies written clearly in her blue irises. Oh, and the grimace as she expected the explosion of Oliver's reaction. That was kind of hard to miss.

He should have been a lot angrier than the mild annoyance that sprung up inside of him, and three months ago, he probably would have been. But something was different now. He'd trusted her with the memories of his time in hell. She'd trusted him with the knowledge that her encounter with the Count had permanently changed her. To a level where he could only imagine the people that would try to get her hands on her for use as a research guinea pig if it were common knowledge. That being said, he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt despite his complete lack of control in this situation, and at least give her the chance to explain.

In private. So later. Right now he just leveled a glare at Barry Allen. "...What's he doing here?" He questioned firmly, pointing his thumb in the general direction of the nerd and giving a pointed look at both Felicity and Diggle, although he could tell from her previous plea that it was Felicity behind the young man's presence.

"He saved your life...with rat poison. No, I'm not kidding. I know how insane that sounds." Felicity answered quickly, not giving either Barry or Dig the chance to butt in before her and make this conversation any more difficult that in needed to be. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do. And I couldn't let you die. I had to make a choice and it was this or the hospital. And I know how much you hate hospitals. So I'm kind of hoping you hate me revealing your secret to someone I feel like I can trust just a little bit less."

Barry was caught with his mouth open, having been about to say something before she started rambling on. Dig was just shaking his head with a smile of amusement. Neither of them were reactions that she cared about; the only person she was worried about was the man in front of her. And all she was hoping for was that, for once in her life, her word vomit had worked in her favor.

"So...Uh...I'm sorry. For giving your secret away. But I didn't really want to watch my boyfriend die, so..." There was a beat of complete and utter silence between the four people in the Arrowcave, and between Oliver and Dig's raised eyebrows and Barry's bewildered look, Felicity forced herself to backtrack and replay her words in her head. Her eyes widening when her brain caught up with her mouth and she realized what she just admitted.

She ignored the whistle from Dig, and the damage control part of her brain was simply hoping that she'd let Barry's hopes down somewhat gently. Thankfully, after he'd let her realize what she'd said, Oliver's subsequent reaction was for the brightest genuine smile she imagined he was capable of mustering in his present state spread across his face. "Felicity." He interrupted her before she could begin to ramble again. "Thank you."

She let out a sigh of relief and, seeing as how she'd already let the cat out of the bag, decided to just do what felt right; she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his cheek with a chaste kiss. "You're welcome. And I know you'll probably want to talk about this later. So...my place?" She whispered.

He nodded shortly, and then turned to level his gaze on Barry in a piercing stare. "If Felicity's wrong about you, so help me I will hunt you down and put an arrow in you." He threatened. Enjoying watching Barry's throat work with the gulp of fear followed by his rapid nod of complete agreement with those terms.

He shook his head clear of the entire situation, and took in a breath to calm himself. "Alright, what did I miss while I was taking a nap?"

Dig, Barry, and Felicity all looked at each other for a brief moment, before both of the men in question turned to Oliver while pointing at her. "We'll let her catch you up to speed."

Felicity's jaw dropped in disbelief at being teamed up on, before she fixed a glare on the two of them. Somehow feeling that this was both of them making light of her tendency to ramble. But it did shift into a grateful and relieved look when both of them turned tail and exited out of the Arrowcave to do...something else.

"I'm sorry." Felicity repeated quietly as she stepped towards her brooding boyfriend, her hands held together at her waist.

"Forgiven." Oliver assured instantly. Something he probably wouldn't have said after first coming back from the Undertaking. But she'd taken the ungrounded man, filled with nothing but anger, pain, guilt and regrets, and given him an anchor-point. Something to hold onto, even with things got rough.

"...Really?" Felicity blinked. Not quite expecting this whole conversation to be quite that simple. "I mean, I thought you might be a little more...angry. About me slipping your secret. Not that I want you to be angrier, it's just..."

"I probably would have been." He admitted, his blue eyes locking onto hers. "But you're right, it was this or the hospital...Did he seriously use rat poison though?" To say he looked mildly disturbed at the thought...well, that would be a _mild _understatement. He'd subscribed to a lot of unorthodox methods of survival ever since the wreck of the _Queen's Gambit_, and even since returning from the island. For example; stabbing himself in the shoulder with an arrow in order to defeat Malcolm Merlyn. But using a poison to counteract another poison wasn't exactly something that had ever crossed his mind.

Felicity smirked in response. "Yes. Yes he did. And I'm not sure on this, but just for the record, I think it's pretty much a coin toss on whether he has a bigger crush on me, or on you." She nearly giggled at the completely blank look on Oliver's face. "He seems _very _interested in the Arrow. And when he found out it was you, he went absolutely nuts with theories of what happened to you on the island. Which I neither confirmed, nor denied. Just for the record."

"That's my girl." Oliver smirked, trying his best to put even the joke that Barry might have a man-crush on him, out of his mind.

"I like how you say that." Felicity blurted. Her face turning pink an instant later when she realized she'd voice her thoughts aloud. "So...uh...now that I've kinda spilled the beans to these two by accident...are we still keeping us under wraps for now, or...? I don't think Miss Rochev would be very happy if she found out you're dating your secretary...Not that I want to be your secretary. I still think that's a silly position and a waste of my skills, but-"

"Felicity?" Oliver interrupted.

"Hm?"

"Shut up."


	15. Chapter 15: Questions Without Answers

A/N: For anyone who may have thought I wasn't paying enough attention to the other characters of the show.

Disclaimer: I own the food I just bought at walmart?

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Thea Queen was not your normal eighteen-year-old girl. Then again, what could be considered normal for someone who lost her father and her hero big brother when she was just twelve years old, and then had to go on for five years without ever knowing what happened to the pair, before that big brother re-appeared someone completely different than the man she remembered. As someone who lied to her about his life every time she tried to get involved. Not that she blamed him after five years in hell.

And then on top of that, her mother had been heavily involved in a conspiracy that not only resulted in the death of her father and those five years her beloved brother had had to endure. Not to mention the kidnapping of her step-father, Walter and..._oh right_, the utter destruction of _half the freaking city!_

With all that being considered, she figured the fact that she was dating a guy who stole her purse and that she was running a popular night club at age eighteen, was actually relatively normal.

Though it still haunted her how many secrets her family kept from her. Her mother had her secrets, her father had apparently had his secrets, Walter was forced to keep secrets. Hell, even Roy was keeping secrets from her. Running off to fight crime in the Glades...he hadn't been the same since the vigilante shot him. He'd been acting...really weird, to say the least.

But honestly, the secrets that bothered her the most, for whatever reason, were the ones her brother kept from her. She could easily understand that Oliver's experiences on the island had been painful, personal, and that they were just on a level that he would probably never share them completely with anyone. But that wasn't even the part that bothered her.

No, she was bothered by the secrets he kept now that he was home. He acted like the same old Oliver in the public eye. Drunken party boy without an ounce of responsibility in his body. It was obviously a hollow attempt, but everyone seemed to think it was just a coping mechanism. That he was dealing with his demons from the island by trying to go back to the normal that he remembered.

She knew that theory was B.S. The moment he called her out on getting drunk at a party. When she noticed that, no matter how many parties he went to since his return, she never saw him even close to intoxication. He was responsible now. But he was pretending like he wasn't. Why?

It hurt her to no end that the only people in the entire city he seemed comfortable around were Felicity Smoak and John Diggle. At first she'd wondered if her initial mistakes when Oliver had come back from the island...pushing him away because she was holding on so tightly to the Oliver he'd been, the one she'd grown up trying to be just like in his memory, and ignoring the brother that _came back to her_, that she'd lost him forever.

And then she'd started seeing things that just didn't add up. Like the fact that Felicity Smoak, now her brother's _executive assistant_ at Queen Consolidated, was from the freaking IT department. And that she was also arrested last year for suspicion of hacking and connection to the vigilante.

Like the fact that John Diggle was the only bodyguard her mother had assigned to Oliver that he seemed to get along with at all. And the man just happened to be ex-special forces in Afghanistan.

Like the fact that, granted, while he was the creator of Verdant. Ever since the fall of the glades, it had become _her _baby. But he'd disappear from QC the moment the work day ended, and he'd rarely be seen again until the next morning. If he was, it was almost always at some public function, or around Verdant. Even though he never came to the club to _party_.

What the hell had her brother gone through on that damn island? Why was he so comfortable around two people who...honestly, just didn't make sense to be comfortable around? Where did he disappear to for hours at night?

Why had the vigilante appeared in Starling City less than a week after Oliver's return to Starling City? Why was it that the first person to report seeing him was, in fact, Oliver, with no other witnesses? Was it a coincidence that her brother had been arrested on suspicion that he was the Vigilante, and then the Hood was spotted on the other side of town _without his bow_, when Oliver was at a very public party, at the Queen family home, with a tracking anklet on. And that John Diggle, Oliver's ever-present bodyguard at the time, had been nowhere to be seen during the party?

Why had the Vigilante been suspiciously absent from the city for the entire time that Oliver was gone after the fall of the glades? Why did it hurt her so much when Oliver suggested for her to stay away from the Vigilante, because he was dangerous?

Thea Queen sighed and ran a hand through her hair as she watched her boyfriend walk around the club, cleaning up after a particularly wild night.

Roy Harper, in his own right, was an enigma. A thief with a heart of gold, and a proven unhealthy obsession with the Vigilante that had resulted in his thigh being shishkebabed by an arrow.

Did the Hood shoot Roy for Roy's own protection? To keep him grounded in bed and out of further danger?

She really wanted a drink right now. A shot of vodka would be nice. If it weren't that little mental preview of her brother's new-found disapproval of that kind of lifestyle ever since his return.

The very lifestyle he pretended to lead in public eye.

And there was another thing that bothered her.

The FBI had never suspected Walter Steele of being dead. So who the hell was Diggle's contact? Were they lied to? Or was it a lie in itself? Had Oliver come to that conclusion on his own, somehow?

She took a deep breath, almost as if she was bracing for the question she was about to ask herself.

Was her beloved big brother a Vigilante that had put twenty-eight criminals in the morgue?

Obviously, he was never going to give her a straight answer.

And she was sick and tired of being lied to. So that only left one option.

She'd just have to find out the truth herself.


	16. Chapter 16: Challenging Nightmares

A/N: A wild interlude appeared!

Disclaimer: No. Yeah. No. No. Yeaaaahhh.

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Oliver Queen awoke in a cold sweat. The sound of his heavy breathing over-powering every other noise in the quiet night that befell the room. Memories of the island were flashing through his mind. Of all the things that happened to him in that five year period, usually his dreams focused on the night the _Queen's Gambit _went down. On watching Sara apparently die for the first time. Of watching his father commit suicide before his very eyes.

Of course, there were other things that haunted him. Like having watched, helpless, as Edward Fyers killed Yao Fei. Like his forced choice between Sara and Shado, and his failed attempt to take a third option.

And now, how that failure, and his failure to save Slade by any other means than the Mirakuru...they were mounting on his shoulders. After five years in hell Oliver Queen was intimately familiar with the concept of 'survivor's guilt'. He experienced it every single day. He-

"Oliver?" Felicity mumbled sleepily from his side. Even as her clothed body snuggled further into his. "Nightmare?" She breathed with her eyes still closed. A peaceful look across her face. If it weren't for the fact that she was talking, Oliver might have thought she was still asleep. She really was adorable sometimes...And by sometimes, he meant 'pretty much always'.

A sigh escaped from his lips and he bent his head down to kiss her forehead. "Mhm." He confirmed quietly, running his hand through her dyed blonde hair.

"Don't you ever dream of anything good? It's no wonder you're so dark and brooding all the time." She whined, blinking open her eyes and suddenly he found himself lost in the crystal blues that shone brightly back at him, even in the darkness.

"I had five years where literally, nothing good happened. There isn't a whole lot of good memories up here to outweigh that." Oliver answered, tapping his own forehead and giving her an apologetic smile. Which quickly turned to a look of confusion as a teasing smile came across Felicity's face.

"Why, Oliver Queen...is that a challenge?"

"...A challenge?" He clarified, raising his eyebrow.

"Yeah. A challenge, to make enough good memories to outweigh the bad." The blonde replied, moving up to silence any response from her boyfriend with her lips.

Oliver, on his part, mentally cursed. He was supposed to make her melt in his arms, not the other way around.

Regardless, he did melt. Relaxing instantly into the kiss, as the nightmare fled from his mind. When the kiss broke, he could feel her smile. "I think I'm going to enjoy taking that challenge." Felicity teased, her hands tracing the muscle tone of his torso.

Oliver shook his head with a chuckle. "What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"You're rich, ridiculously hot, and a really good guy who's using his bad experiences to actually help people who would put you behind bars, given the chance. I think I should be asking you that question." His computer geek answered, and even in the darkness, the blush that erupted on her face at his raised eyebrow was quite obvious. "What? I have eyes. Where are they supposed to go when you're showing off on the salmon ladder?"

He chuckled again. "I didn't say anything." He defended, raising his arms in surrender.

"You were thinking it." Felicity brushed off. "And you're acting like you don't believe me."

"I don't." Oliver admitted with a shrug. He had so many scars, and while only a small portion of them were visible, the ones that were had to be horrifying to look at.

"Then I guess I'll just have to prove it." Oliver's eyes almost shot out of their sockets when Felicity stated this, and peeled off her shirt, crawling over over his body. "And get a head start on that challenge while I'm at it..."

"There's a lot of bad memories..." Oliver mused, unsure if this was really happening.

"Well it wouldn't be a challenge if there weren't, would it?" She teased as her bra fell down her arms and dropped on his chest.

And that was about the time his brain decided to shut off.


	17. Chapter 17: Curveballs

A/N: And now for something completely different!

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"Rae." Richard Grayson greeted as he walked up to the teenage witch that he worked with on a daily basis. Raven, as she was more properly referred to, was sitting on the balcony that circled the top of this abandoned lighthouse on the edge of Jump City.

To any other human being in this city, Raven was probably incredibly creepy. Frazzled black hair, normally covered by the black and purple cloth that constituted her hoodie. Dark track pants with a similar purple lining finishing off her usual garb that concealed alabaster skin and shadowed eyes.

But Richard Grayson, or Robin, as he was known to the people of this city, to Raven, and to the rest of the team, was no stranger to darkness. For two years, he'd been the sidekick and adopted son of the Batman himself. A man secretly haunted for most of his life by the death of his parents.

An experience that the Bat and the Robin shared in common. Robin had been in the middle of their family circus routine when suddenly his parents were just...Gone. Fallen to their deaths via equipment 'malfunction'...otherwise known as sabotage. Only to later be adopted by the Bat and get the chance to turn the tables on the men who'd committed the act, giving him a small modicum of revenge. And then he'd been pushed away after a violent and nearly fatal encounter with the Joker.

That being said, he was probably the only one out of the team otherwise known as the 'Teen Titans' that wasn't completely creeped out by the girl who channeled the power of demons for good.

The Teen Titans; Robin, Raven, Cyborg and Jinx. None of them knew of each others real identities despite having lived and worked together for the last three years...Well, Jinx for the last year and a half, before that she had been one of their enemies. But then she just happened to fall in love with Cyborg and everything had changed.

Now Robin was up here, peering through the fabric domino mask that hid his eyes from anyone and everyone. Not exactly just for his own privacy, but also to keep the secrets of the Bat. If anyone knew the true identity of Robin, it wouldn't be hard to piece together the man behind the cowl in Gotham. Despite any disagreements between the two ever since the incident with the Joker, He knew revealing that secret to anyone could quickly result in either a flood of criminals in either Jump City or Gotham, going after one or the other. Or a swift ass-kicking from the Bat himself.

Raven was the one he came to whenever he needed to vent, whenever he needed advice. She understood secrets. She understood why someone, especially someone like him, would need to keep them. And most importantly, she didn't stick her in head in business where it didn't belong.

"Yes, boy blunder?" Her ever present bored look shone back at him through piercing violet eyes as she peered at him over her shoulder. He ignored the usual insult she used as his nickname.

Robin took a deep breath, wondering of her reaction to the news he was about to break. "I think I found Slade." He finally blurted, waiting for her the angry glare that either of the other Titans would have leveled at him for his obsession with finding the criminal mastermind. An obsession which had driven Robin to turn to crime himself in an attempt to catch him.

Thankfully, she didn't. The only response that met him was a raised eyebrow. "I think he's in Starling City. And so is Brother Blood." He further explained.

Raven just sucked in a breath. Two of their greatest enemies, one of them a man who had caused Robin, their leader, to pick up the guise of a criminal. The Red X, to try and stop him. The other of which had filled Slade's shoes after his disappearance from Jump City and the current man behind the mooks that plagued the streets of Jump every time the Titans could turn around. A man they'd only encountered once. "Are you sure?" Raven clarified.

She didn't doubt the walking traffic light's detective skills. Not nearly as much as she questioned his fashion sense, in any case. But for three years, Slade had been the one man that completely stumped even his honed prowess in deduction.

"Positive." Robin confirmed with a small nod.

"So...What are we going to do?" Raven continued, locking him with a gaze that would unnerve just about any man. Just not him.

"We go after him." Robin vowed, clenching his fist at the thought that he might finally be getting close to the prey he'd been chasing for the last three years.

Robin rose to her feet from the cross-legged pose she'd been in ever since he arrived on the balcony without the use of her hands whatsoever to obtain the lift she needed, and waled up to him. A chill in the air following her that he basked in. "What about Jump?" She questioned flatly, leading him to smirk.

"We leave Cy and Jinx here to handle any issues." He declared. He was no stranger to working alone with the witch standing in front of him. Having done so exclusively for about three months after he moved from Gotham to Jump, before Cy joined the duo.

"Just the two birds again, hm? This better not be your idea of asking me on a date, Boy Blunder. Because if it is, you suck at it." Raven smirked as she dodged to walk past him, leading him to sigh at her sense of humor.

"Where are you going?" He asked, turning to keep her in sight as she headed for the staircase back into the lighthouse.

"To pack!" She called over her shoulder, disappearing into the tower.

Robin grinned. A trip to another city to hunt down Slade and Brother Blood, all while working with the Witch of the Titans. Probably the one out of the group with the greatest amount of power.

He knew if they were going to be in Starling City for any length of time they would have to keep a low profile. They would have to dispense with their hero identities.

Truthfully, he was kind of looking forward to sharing his past with her after three years.

* * *

A/N: Yep. Teen Titans. I took out Starfire and Beast Boy just because they wouldn't make sense in this universe, at least not yet. But I left Jinx in there, because really, probability manipulation is part of the super-natural. Raven's powers are also going to be different than they are in the anime.


	18. Chapter 18: Theories

A/N: blaah. Work was sooo boring today. Have a chapter!

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"Roy?" Thea questioned as she walked up to him. He'd been acting...odd, ever since his injury at the hands of his Vigilante idol.

"What's up?" Her boyfriend asked, causing her to bite her lip. He was carrying a case of vodka back to the stock room for now.

"I need to talk to you. In private." Thea smiled nervously. "I'm going full detective mode. And I need your help."

Roy rose his eyebrow, but shrugged in acceptance. At least it wasn't the kind of 'We need to talk' talk that almost everyone in a good relationship dreaded. "Sure. I'll be upstairs in a sec. Just let me put this up." He lifted the crate in his arms pointedly.

He enjoyed the bright smile and the kiss on his cheek before Thea ran off to go upstairs. To her office. The one she never really used. The moment she pulled away from him, she was anxious of the reaction to the theories she was about to share with him. And it was completely freaking her out.

Thankfully, he was almost there as soon as she was. It was a good thing he moved quickly, or else she might have managed to psych herself out of this conversation and pretended she'd just come up here for some teenage fun.

"Alright, what's up?" Roy asked, as he shut the door behind him.

Thea sucked in a breath. "I think my brother might be the Vigilante." She forced out all at once.

Oh, cool...Wait, what?

The confusion was etched all over his face, and Thea found herself explaining her theories and the justification behind them.

"And I'm not just pulling this out of my ass, Roy. So don't laugh."

He blinked. And then shook his head clear. "I'm not laughing. I still think it's a little far-fetched, but let's hear it."

Thea walked over by the desk she never really sat at, and pulled the cover off of a standing bulletin board. How had he not noticed that? The board itself was covered in newspaper clippings and flagging tape, all related to both Oliver and the Hood.

"Last year, when my brother came back from the island, The Hood showed up within a week of Ollie getting home. And his first act was to save Ollie from a bunch of thugs. Which is nice and all, but the only problem is that nobody but Oliver saw this. The next appearance? Right across the street from Ollie's welcome home party. Which Ollie apparently disappeared from for a while after talking to Laurel." Thea paused her explanation to take a breath, and the chance to note that Roy was, in fact, listening to her with rapt interest, before she continued.

"It was such a coincidence that, when security footage in a building..." She pointed at the appropriate shot of said footage on the board. "Caught Ollie grabbing a bag out of a trash can before a Hood appearance, the Police actually arrested him on suspicion. But he was released because the Vigilante appeared on the other side of town while Ollie was throwing a giant party at home with a tracking anklet on the entire time. Ensuring an alibi. Pretty convenient if you ask me, considering anyone in the world can wear a green hood and kick the crap out of some guys. That and Dig was mysteriously missing for the party." The paused again, relieved when Roy nodded his head in agreement with that particular point.

There were plenty of questions written in his eyes. But thankfully, he seemed to realize that she was presenting all of her evidence in chronological order. And he would wait for her to get to the proper point in time to ask his questions.

"Not to mention the Hood seems to have had an obsession with Laurel ever since he showed up. And add that to the fact that when my brother went away for a few weeks after what happened in the Glades, the Hood disappeared as well. And he only showed back up again a week or two after Ollie returned...To save me from a group of his own disciples." She broke her explanation to breath once again. "He disappears at night after work and sometimes isn't seen again until the next morning at QC. He hangs around with a suspected hacker with a connection to the Vigilante and an ex-special forces guy. He pretends to be the same playboy he was before the island, but he shoved me away from doing the same thing. He was gone for Five. Years. Roy, and I have no idea what happened to him on that damned island, but it changed him. And every time the Hood has appeared that I can prove Ollie's had an alibi for, Dig is nowhere to be seen."

"But if your brother is the Vigilante, why the hell did he shoot me in the leg with an arrow?" Roy wondered aloud.

"Maybe because I'm his sister. And you're my boyfriend. Whenever you get into trouble, I do too." Thea explained. It was a far better explanation than any other idea they'd had for the Hood's motive to injure Roy.

"...So he shot me in the leg...to keep me out of trouble?" The red hooded boy repeated skeptically.

"And by extension, me." The eighteen year old owner of a night club confirmed her theory.

"...Okay, so say we do think your brother runs around the city at night, putting arrows in people. Now what do we do?" At least he was agreeing that her ideas made some modicum of sense.

Thea breathed out again in relief that he didn't think she was completely crazy, and as such, the next words out of her mouth were completely honest.

"I have no idea."


	19. Chapter 19: Dear Google

A/N: And now we come to Blast Radius! I actually wrote this the day _before _Blast Radius and it fit so well that I reorganized it after the fact and rewrote it to fit in.

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Whatever had possessed her to research the things that Oliver had survived on the island, Felicity had no idea. Yao Fei, Fyres, Slade, Ivo. A quick internet search revealed a ton of information about any of the above. Even if most of it was rather vague. Yao Fei, former officer of the People's Republic of China Army. Edward Fyres, former officer in the British Royal Marines, Slade Wilson, operative for the Australian SAS.

Those three were by far the easiest for her to find. Military records were never hard. But the generalized information listed in the service records did little to tell her what kind of men they were. What was interesting to discover, however, was Fyres last employer. After his service in the Royal Marines, he'd become a mercenary. Head of his own Private Military Company. That information had taken a little digging to discover.

Some more digging had uncovered bank and phone records from the last three years of his life. One rather large money transfer and a series of phone calls to accounts tracing back to...One Isabel Rochev. Easily the most interesting find out of her entire whimsical search of boredom.

As if she didn't hate the woman enough already for tagging along on the trip to Russia and then trying to seduce Oliver. Now the only question was if it was Ms. Rochev that had been behind the attempt to shoot down that airliner, and if so, why? What did Rochev have to gain from shooting down an international flight full of innocent civilians?

And why was she on the list? Obviously, since the Undertaking, Oliver had ceased hunting the targets on his father's list. But so far every single name on that list had been there for a very good reason. And the more she looked into the island, the more she looked into the histories of some of the uncrossed names on that list, the more Felicity began to think that maybe, just maybe, Oliver should start hitting the list once again.

She sat back in her chair. Right now, she was alone in the cave. Which explained her boredom despite the current situation of hunting down a man with a love for explosives. Oliver was hitting the man's shop, in full Arrow-gear, and Dig was off at Sebastian Blood's rally, searching for the explosives that were set there. Until either one of them found something, she was basically sitting on eggshells. She was their eyes and ears if and when they needed it, but for now, to keep herself occupied, she was just researching.

Unfortunately, her hyperactive brain, while it may have made her a freaking genius, it also meant that she would ponder things better left alone. Case in point; what the hell were Isabel Rochev's plans for Queen Consolidated?

What was her purpose for pinning the destruction of an international airliner on China, as Oliver had conveyed to her in his explanations of his time on the island? Connecting the dots was both fun and incredibly frustrating. Why had Yao Fei and his daughter ended up on the island to begin with? Who was truly behind Edward Fyers? Was it in fact, Isabel Rochev? Or was she just another pawn in a grand chain? Why was Ivo after the Mirakuru? How had the Mirakuru gotten off the island? How had Sara survived?

The questions were piling up on each other, and for once in her life, her computers didn't really have the answers she sought. And some foreboding feeling made her feel like all of this was just a small piece in a much larger puzzle, hinting towards something that would effect them all in the immediate future.

What hinted her to the fact that something big was about to happen? Well, that was simple. How had Count Vertigo, being a chemist drug lord with little apparent interest in anything technological, escape from prison and still manage to get his hands on a sample of technology so complex, advanced, and sophisticated as self-replicating, mission programmable nanites? It just didn't make sense. It wasn't a field that the Count himself would have had any semblance of access to. And why had he chosen to use them on her, instead of turning them over to one of the many arms dealers that would likely pay a fortune to acquire such technology?

Speaking of the nanites. She shot a look at her right-most computer screen. The code spread across the screen depicting the programmed functions and orders of the different groups of nano-machines now running through her bloodstream. She pondered the ideas behind what else she could do with the little robots. All while trying to avoid the side effects she'd discovered if she gave them too much work; a fever that the hyperactive little robots would work up in her, threatening hyperthermia if she worked them too hard.

"Felicity?" Oliver's voice crackled in her ear, interrupting her mental tangents and causing her to perk up at the sound of his voice.

His very tense voice.

"Reading you loud and clear, Oliver. What's up?" She questioned, clearing off her computer screens so she would have the room to work on whatever her super secret vigilante boyfriend needed of her.

The worry was already gnawing through her.


	20. Chapter 20: Soaring to the Stars

When she walked up to his motorcycle, Robin had raised his eyebrows at the fact that Raven had changed into a pair of jeans and she'd brushed her hair into a straightened, presentable fashion. Unlike the frazzled it mess it usually appeared. She actually looked like a normal girl. It was weird. Then again, he'd traded in the walking traffic light outfit for his own pair of jeans and an open button-down. He pulled his wrap-around sunglasses down and waved her over.

Raven sucked in a breath when she noted the wildly gelled hair that identified the Boy Blunder to her. He looked nothing like usual; the outfit she'd become so used to seeing on him, traded out for normal clothing. The mask that never left his face, was gone. But what truly made her suck in the breath, were the crystal clear dark blue eyes that had always been hidden underneath that mask, ever since she could remember knowing him. But nevertheless, she brushed off all her reactions and continued towards the motorcycle. "I stand corrected. Maybe you _do _have a sense of fashion." She teased, throwing her leg over the back of the bike and settling down on the seat behind him, accepting the protective helmet that he offered her.

Robin's short laugh filled her ears. "Yeah yeah, I know. I look like a traffic light most of the time. I'm working on it. Unless you think I should become Red X again..." He trailed off with a sarcastic drawl.

"At least that outfit isn't such an eyesore." Raven smirked, wrapping both arms around his waist. "Y'know, if you're going to make me wear a helmet, you should probably wear one too."

She didn't even need to see Robin's face to know he was rolling his eyes at her. "Yes ma'am." Did he really have to be so sarcastic? Oh. Wait. She was probably even worse than him on that front. Never mind.

"Off to Starling City, milady?" He drawled after he'd gotten his helmet on.

"Why aren't we moving already?" Was the bored answer. Which drew a chuckle. Oh yes. This trip was going to be fun.

"Very well. Richard Grayson, nice to meet you, miss...?" Raven blinked. Before realizing that his plan was for them to go by their real identities while in Starling City. She would have given him a fake name, any name really, had she not been able to pick up with her demonic powers that the name he gave her was completely truthful. Richard Grayson was his real name.

"Rachel. Rachel Roth." It was as close to a real name as she'd ever had. At least that she could remember, even if it was just a fake identity she'd assumed in order to attend high school.

There was a smirk on Robin's face underneath his visor as he looked over his shoulder at her. "Guess I can still call you Rae, then. Most people call me Dick."

"That's because you _are _a dick. I think I'll stick to calling you Richard."

The roar of the motorcycle engine and the squealing of the rear tire drowned out Robin's laughter as they took off for Starling City.

It was also about the point that Raven realized that the name Richard Grayson sounded very familiar.

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A/N; Review! Let me know what you think of me incorporating the Titans. Let me know of any further DC integration you want to see! Just keep in mind that, despite how fast I'm uploading these, I'm usually still six chapters ahead of you guys. I'm writing an average of three to four chapters a day.


	21. Chapter 21: Let This City Burn

"Felicity, I need you to pull anything you can find on this shop. And patch me through to Dig." Oliver Queen was well aware of the fact that he sounded incredibly tense. Considering the fact that he was surrounded by laser tripwires in a room that had RDX packed into the walls like some kind of messed up pinata, he thought he had a damn good reason for it too.

"What is it you need?" Felicity sounded off, and he could hear the concern laced in her voice.

"Blueprints. Schematics. Anything you can find."

"On it. Dig's on the line, by the way."

"Good. The bombs are hidden in the sound equipment around the perimeter of the rally. See what you can do to find it."

Felicity piped up after his confirmation that there were, indeed, bombs at the rally. "You're on your way there too, right?" She questioned, sounding hopeful.

"Not yet..." His voice sounded irritated, but he hadn't directed that irritation at her. He hadn't moved a muscle since before he first contacted her. "I'm kind of tied up with a few laser tripwires and a wall full of high explosive insulation right now..."

Felicity gasped loudly over the radio. Causing him to wince with his eyes alone. Not how he'd hoped for that to come out, really. She was probably already worried enough before he'd said that.

"Right. Well, unless those tripwires are running off of some kind of auxiliary power source-" Batteries, in other words. "-It's probably tied into the electrical system of the building itself. Especially since the explosives are in the walls, that would be the easiest way to do it." There was a paused, and all he could hear was the clatter of her keyboard as she typed away like a madwoman. "We're in luck. Building was constructed back in the seventies. Electrical systems back then were pretty fragile. Cut one wire and the whole system goes offline. Doesn't look like the system was ever upgraded. But then again, it doesn't look like the insulation was ever upgraded with plastic explosives either."

"I see a fuse-box." Oliver informed, his eyes locking onto the silver box across the room. Slowly, very slowly, he turned his body to aim at the object. One eye locked to the head of the drawn arrow on his bow. Making absolute sure to keep that one laser beam locked to the metal at the end of the arrow. He could hear the blood rushing through the veins in his ears. He could feel his heard pounding in his chest.

"Oliver, be careful..." Felicity urged quietly. Though it sounded more like a prayer. Hoping against all hope that this plan would work. If it didn't...if that electrical system had been upgraded. If those tripwires ran off of batteries. If she was just plain wrong and the explosives weren't tied into the electrical system at all, Oliver was dead. And she would have failed him. Failed to find him a way out of danger.

The explosion deafened her right ear through the wireless earpiece. But her heart seized up in her chest at the silence that followed. "Oliver!" She cried out.

Silence. "...Oliver...?"

Her heart jumped for joy a moment later when he finally, finally responded to her. "Meet me at the rally, I'm on my way."

Felicity didn't waste any time ripping the earpiece away from her ear and spinning around in her chair to a dead sprint up the stairs and out of the Arrowcave. She needed to get to the rally. For one, some psycho was blow the whole event up and everyone in it. For two, she _needed _to see Oliver and make sure he was alright.

When said Psycho pointed a gun at her to stop her from disarming his bombs, she was completely calm. Months ago, she might have been trembling in fear or begging for her life. But now? Now she wouldn't give this son-of-a-bitch the satisfaction of seeing her beg. Of seeing her afraid. She'd been wanting to test out the slow-mo type reactions that the Count's little gift had given her. Wondering if it was extensive enough to allow her to dodge bullets.

So when John Diggle turned into a heroic retard and rushed forward, getting himself shot in the shoulder, she wasn't exactly very happy with Oliver's idiot 'bodyguard'. Or the explosives obsessed weirdo wielding the gun.

She both mentally cheered when Oliver arrived and chased the basket case away, and cursed at the fact that her chance to see what she could do was taken away. That wasn't important at the moment though.

Disarming the bombs in case Oliver couldn't get to the idiot in time to stop him was her first priority. Then tending to Diggle was number two. And then making sure Oliver didn't get himself cooked in the shop was a very close third.

Honestly, between the two of them, she was beginning to honestly consider if she needed to start attending medical school in her free time.

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A/N: Good grief, what is Felicity ever going to do with Oliver, constantly getting himself into trouble? Find out soon!


	22. Chapter 22: Getting Sidetracked

Watching your boyfriend saving the life of your mother is _usually_ a good thing to see. But when that act involved a feat that should be physically impossible for any normal human being, the line between good and 'scary as all get out' became kind of blurry.

When he'd gotten himself stabbed in the arm with the debris from a falling crate of jars while trying to get it on with her in her office, and two days later there wasn't even a scar remaining as evidence of the fact that he'd ever been hurt. When he could run underneath a falling light pole and catch it, with his back, without any struggle whatsoever. And then lift it enough to get out from under it on his own...Well, things just started feeling really weird.

Thea Queen did not like when things were weird. Especially not when Roy Harper was involved in the weirdness. She'd had enough of that for a lifetime from her biological family. From her mother, from her brother, even from her father. Roy had been her one escape. And now, he was just acting odd. Keeping even more secrets from her than she'd accepted from him in the first place. He seemed haunted by...something.

And her brother...Well, his concern over Roy was only making her more and more suspicious of Ollie's secrets. Why would he care about Roy's status unless he was the reason behind it in the first place? Did he know about the changes in Roy's behavior, like he'd hinted? Did he know what had caused them?

Because this particular problem had nothing to do with Roy's idol, the Arrow. Who they suspected to be none other than Oliver himself at this particular moment, shooting him in the leg with an arrow. Last time she'd checked, arrow wounds tended to cripple their surviving victims for life. It didn't usually give them superhuman strength, stamina, and healing abilities.

And now she had to figure out what was going on with her boyfriend, before she even got the chance to confirm what she suspected was going on with her older brother.

Thea loved mysteries. But a mystery you were stalled from solving for five weeks was rather frustrating, any way you happened to look at it. Especially when more and more mysteries just kept getting piled on top of the original, with no answers in sight.

Casting her eyes towards the ceiling, She pleaded to whatever deity was listening for answers on what she should do.

"Screw it." Thea muttered to herself, deciding on her own course of action after a moment, and she ran off after Roy. She didn't care what his secrets were. Too many things had been kept from her in her life, and she was just about sick and tired of all of it.

Her and Roy were in this together. And no matter what had changed him, she would be there for him. She would never give up on him. She couldn't lose him too.

Little did she know exactly how much her mental sentiments echoed those of a certain blonde IT expert, that just so happened to accompany her previously mentioned older brother all the freaking time.

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A/N: _Still _on Blast Radius. This is what happens when I try to expand this into an ensemble cast. XD


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